Postwar Labor Tension

Charlotte Raiford & Jordan Lange

Main Point: After World War I, labor workers demanded union recognition, shorter work days, and raise in wages exceeding the inflation rate. When these demand were not met, workers began to form strikes against the industrial system.

1. In the steel industry, 350,000 steel workers went on strike as a part of the drive by the American Federarion of Labor to unionize the industry.

2. Also during this time, communist were seizing power in Hungary and staging a revolt in Germany. Because of this some American Industrialist feared that the steel strike was the first step toward overturning the industrial system.